Nestle taps Telefonica to offer IoT-controlled coffee machines

Telefonica is to provide global IoT connectivity for Nestle Professional coffee solutions in a bid to improve the food and drink company’s customer experience and business efficiency.

Telefonica says that it will integrate its Smart M2M solution into new and existing Nestle equipment across more than 50 countries, with this enabling the end user to manage and control IoT communications on these devices.

This connectivity will supposedly give Nestle greater control over their equipment, enabling them to improve customer experience – such as adjusting the coffee taste, whilst also enhancing business efficiency through remote configuration and predictive maintenance.

New Nestlé Professional coffee machines will incorporate the telemetry solution from launch while older, legacy versions will have an add-on module that will provide them with the same capabilities. Telefonica’s Smart M2M solution is already said to be serving more than 2,500 customers globally, across all industries.

Henri de Roo, global head of business applications at Nestlé, said of the news: “Telefonica enabled us a new way of communicating and interacting with our coffee solutions at a global scale, allowing us to personalize our customer experience. We trusted their capabilities to deliver this project and they were able to respond to our needs beyond their own network footprint.”

José Luis Gamo, Telefonica Business Solutions’ European corporates and multinationals director, added in a statement: “This key commercial deal demonstrates our global reach and enduring relationship with Nestlé who has trusted Telefonica this time to provide cutting-edge connectivity across the globe. We aim to empower all-sized companies with prominent communications to help them lead the digital revolution ahead and consequently better serve their own customers”.

Telefonica describes Smart M2M, which is reliant on the deployment of a fully featured SIM Card, as a proprietary managed connectivity platform which offers users the ability to manage services and supervise products. According to the company’s website, the solution offers “flexible administration, technical supervision, expense control in real time, location information and records, business intelligence reports and alarms in an easy to use user interface. The API allows you to integrate Smart m2m with your existing software.”